Current products used in many residential homes as part of security alarms systems wirelessly connect door and/or window sensors with a control panel in one installation through a radio frequency (RF) receiver. These sensors and RF receivers operate on 315-345 MHz frequency band. A drawback associated with the products that operate on 315-345 MHz frequency band is the limited amount of data that can be transferred. For instance, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations allow only a set amount of data to be transferred on 315-345 MHz frequency band, thus limiting the fill capacity of the existing products. In addition, in order to comply with the FCC regulations, only a fraction of the transmit power of a transmitter inside the sensors is used. As a result, the communication range between the sensors and the receiver is limited.
Further, current products are based on star topology, which limits the geographical area that can be covered wirelessly. In star topology, there is only a single RF link between a sensor and the RF receiver. A failure in that single RF link means losing communication between the sensor and the RF receiver. In addition, products utilizing such star topology configuration cannot support multiple buildings or multiple floors of the same building. These limitations preclude the option of using the products in residential environments that require large coverage and longer communication range. The products also are not suitable for deploying in commercial environment, which usually also need longer communication range from sensors to RF receivers. Further, as mentioned above, due to FCC regulations, such existing products are not able to transfer large amount of data to control panel, such as video, audio and picture data as is required in some applications. FCC regulations also have limitations on the number of frequency channels according to transmit power levels.